Twig Razor and OSP 'Old Gold'
This is actually a multiple SOTD as I tested the Twig with a couple of different soaps and I used the Old Gold for three shaves.
But...the shaving setup was broadly the same:
Pre-shave wash with Glyce Lime soap, Twig (Mercury finish) razor with half a Gillette Nacet blade.
I tested the Twig first with Proraso green shaving foam (Yes, I used a canned foam!) as I wanted to see how it compared to my usual travel razor...the Mach 3, that I often use with foam.
Two days later, to ensure I had some good beard growth, I tried it with the OSP Old Gold shaving soap.
Long story short...here's my conclusions:
The Twig razor is OK...for the most part, but needs a fundamental design change to properly achieve what I think it's aiming at. It was easy to load and the cap holds the blade securely in place. It shaves nicely on the firmer parts of the face...the sides and WTG. But, I found that ATG and on the softer parts under the chin and around the neck it was a little more prone to sticking. I had more than a couple of very tiny nicks and scrapes and alum and aftershave were both pretty stingy. I came to the conclusion that I think others have commented on: the weighting is the wrong way round. It's all in the handle, rather than the head, so rather than letting the blade fall down the face with little or no pressure, I found myself having to put more pressure on. This is nothing new of course, many razors are weighted this way, but IMHO, not the best ones. I know my own face well enough by now to understand that I like the weight of the razor in the head...maybe the Leaf razor peeps will design a hybrid between the Leaf and the Twig with two blades, still providing the narrower head than the Leaf, for greater precision, but also giving the head more weight than the handle. Maybe they could call it the 'Bud'
.(If anyone else has already suggested that name then I'll split my copyright earnings with you!).
The OSP 'Old Gold' shaving soap and aftershave tonic is mostly great...I wanted to try these because of comments on the forum about the Old Spice inspiration behind them. Of course, I wasn't expecting an Old Spice replica, but something that would provide a similar sort of olfactory response. My first test was of course to take a sniff. The aftershave tonic was an immediate hit...I got the Old Spice vibe straight away, and was really impressed when I compared it to my old Shulton Old Spice AS. Definitely different, but there was an obvious connection. Then I smelled the shaving soap...and was rather confused. I didn't get the same connection at all, in fact it was so unlike Old Spice I thought I might have the wrong soap, especially after the AS was so remarkably similar.
I've shaved with it three times now and I still don't get the Old Spice association...to me it's more citrusy and orange in particular. There may be some after-effect but tbh I'm left baffled.
As a shaving soap though it is excellent and the scent is really pleasant, so I would recommend it to others as a really good one to try.
Happy shaving all and stay safe